ACT FOURTH
SCENE I
KING GEORGE'S WATERING-PLACE, SOUTH WESSEX
A sunny day in autumn. A room in the red-brick royal residence known as Gloucester Lodge.1
At a front triple-lighted window stands a telescope on a tripod. Through the open middle sash is visible the crescent-curved expanse of the Bay as a sheet of brilliant translucent green, on which ride vessels of war at anchor. On the left hand white cliffs stretch away till they terminate in St. Aldhelm's Head, and form a background to the level water-line on that side. In the centre are the open sea and blue sky. A near headland rises on the right, surmounted by a battery, over which appears the remoter bald grey brow of the Isle of S lingers.
In the foreground yellow sands spread smoothly, whereon there are sundry temporary erections for athletic sports; and closer at hand runs an esplanade on which a fashionable crowd is promenading. Immediately outside the Lodge are companies of soldiers, groups of officers, and sentries.
Within the room the KING and PITT are discovered. The KING'S eyes show traces of recent inflammation, and the Minister has a wasted look,
KING
Yes, yes ; I grasp your reasons, Mr. Pitt, And grant you audience gladly. More than that, Your visit to this shore is apt and timely, And if it do but yield you needful rest From fierce debate, and other strains of office Which you and I in common have to bear,
1 This weather-beaten old building, though now an hotel, is but little altered.
83